“We continue to provide military assistance until they get rid of Hamas, but we have to be careful.” – US President Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden pledged to continue supplying arms to Israel in its war against Gaza during a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday night, Israeli media reported.
Addressing the audience, Biden expressed concern about the rising global antisemitism and received applause for the administration’s aid efforts for Gaza, according to the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel.
However, he reportedly cautioned that Israel should be mindful of changing global sentiment in its efforts to dismantle the Palestinian group Hamas.
“We continue to provide military assistance until they get rid of Hamas, but we have to be careful. The whole world, public opinion can shift overnight. We can’t let that happen,” Biden was quoted as saying.
Biden also acknowledged his occasional disagreements with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and revealed that Netanyahu still has a photo from a 1973 meeting, with the President having scrawled a message: “Bibi, I love, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you have to say.”
“It’s about the same today,” Biden announced to the audience.
“As I said after the 7 October attack, my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, and the security of Israel, its right to exist as an independent Jewish state, is unshakeable,’ he reportedly said.
“You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. I am a Zionist. Were there no Israel, there would not be a Jew in the world who is safe,” he added.
On Saturday, the US administration approved an emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth $106.5 million, without a congressional review.
Israel’s Occupation and Wars: The Moral Bankruptcy of US Policy in Palestine
Israel had requested to buy 13,981 tank cartridges and related equipment, the US Defence Department’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 18,412 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(PC, MEMO)
